Till the End of the Line

After their mildly heated discussion Sarah asked Bucky if he wouldn't rather watch a movie than go back into the study. He'd be staying with her indefinitely, so there would be enough time for him to dig into his past.
"You know, I haven't actually seen a movie since 1942.." was his answer.
"You haven't? Well, that's just… Are you serious? But then we should get you up to date!" she started rummaging through her drawer of DVD's. As someone who was avidly interested in anything of historic value, Sarah had quite a lot of 'old' movies. "What was the last movie you saw?"
"Casablanca, I think."
"So, we should start with something that came after that. I've got Sunset Boulevard, that's close enough. We can begin with that and work our way up from there."
He chuckled, watching her pacing before him excitedly.
"Alright then," he said after a moment, "I'll postpone my trip to your study until tomorrow. Do your worst."

The next morning Sarah left early to pick up the quilts at the DAR museum. On her way home she met up with Olivia, as she'd promised to 'tell her everything'. They sat at a window table in a little West End cafe, catching up over tea and muffins.
So far Sarah had managed to steer the conversation clear of Bucky, but when every other subject had been exhausted Olivia asked: "So… What about this guy you've been hiding from me?"
Sarah sipped her tea to defer answering.
"Oh come on, Sarah. Who is he? If he's at your apartment one day after you get back, you must've known him for a while. Why haven't you told me about him?"
Sarah realised Olivia was under the impression that she'd found herself a boyfriend, which would certainly serve as a good excuse for him hanging around her place all the time. She decided to go with it, as she would bring both Bucky and herself into danger if she told Olivia the truth, and Olivia as well.
"We met on a night out a couple of weeks before I went to England. I actually thought it was going to be a one-night kind of thing, but it's actually going really well. He's sort of in-between houses right now, so he's staying with me until he's found a new place."
Olivia smiled, "What's his name? What does he do for a living?"
Sarah swallowed, thinking fast, "His name.. is.. James. He's just come out of active service for the military."
"Oh, like Aidan?"
"Yeah.. Kind of."
Olivia let out an impressed whistle.
"Where did he serve?"
"Eh… to be honest, I'm still not entirely sure myself; he doesn't really like to talk about it."
"Heavy…"
"Yeah, I guess."
"So, when will I meet him?"
"Eh… all in good time. He's still settling back in to civilian life."

Back home, Sarah found Bucky sitting at the kitchen table with her laptop open in front of him. This came as no surprise to her, as she had given him permission to use it the previous night. He looked up when she came in.
"Hey... What have you been up to?" she asked, placing the boxes on the table and moving behind him to put the kettle on.
"Not all that much," he replied. Sarah caught a glimpse of the computer screen; he had several pages open, all in what looked like Russian writing.
"You speak Russian?" she asked, surprised.
He nodded.
"How come?"
"I spent some time in that area… after I fell."
"I see…" Sarah said, not entirely truthfully, taking the boxes and moving them to the study.

The day went by quickly. Sarah worked on the quilts in her study while Bucky spent most of the time on her laptop.
After dinner she told him about meeting Olivia.
"She was under the impression that we are… You know.. a couple."
"And what did you tell her?" he asked, while he did the dishes.
"I told her we are."
"Good, it's a reasonable explanation for me being here all the time."
"That's what I thought! The only thing is: she'll probably want to meet you, at some point."
The sound of shattering glass made her turn around in her seat to see Bucky holding a broken glass in his metal hand.
"Sorry," he said, weighing it gingerly before tossing it into the bin. Sarah chuckled.
"Don't worry. I told her you've just returned from military service and you're still adjusting. That should buy us some time."

It had started to rain again when Bucky retired to the study after he'd finished the dishes. Meanwhile, Sarah had curled up on the couch with a book. They had agreed to watch another movie when he was done.
Sarah was quite surprised at herself for being able to stay so calm while she was harbouring a wanted man. She had noticed that she managed to ignore the sense of danger as long as she was not confronted with the real world outside the walls of her home. She wondered whether this was because the isolation her house provided felt like a sanctuary, or because it was the place where Bucky was. His presence, although it was the reason for the threat, was starting to feel more and more like a guaranty of protection.

The study door opened and closed, causing Sarah to look up and see Bucky standing by the kitchen table, his eyes cast down and his hands in his pockets. After a few moments he made his way into the living room, hesitating when he reached the couch. Eventually he sat down a few feet away from Sarah, who put down her book and looked at him. He leaned forward, resting his face in his palms.
Concerned, Sarah moved a little closer to him.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
He didn't stir or respond. A little anxious, she touched a hand to his shoulder. With a convulsive twist he grabbed her painfully by the wrist, wrenching her off the couch as he did. Sarah gave a yelp of pain, struggling on the floor against his hold on her. As soon as he realised what he was doing, Bucky's eyes widened and he quickly let go of her.
"I'm sorry… I'm so sorry…" he muttered as he tried to help her back on her feet. Sarah stared at him, massaging her sore wrist. She understood that investigating his past would agitate him: he had been very tense after the first time in her study. But she hadn't expected him to actually attack her.
Rain still lashed loudly against the windows. They stood facing each other, both of them panting from the struggle.
"I'm sorry…" he murmured again, his eyes still wide in shock.
Sarah backed away from him a little.
"What the hell happened then?" she asked, as soon as she had found her voice again.
"I don't know, I just… I think this second run might have been a little too much for me to handle."
Sarah's dark eyes travelled over his face, trying to regain that sense of security she had felt in his presence before, but finding it rather difficult while her wrist was still aching. She wanted to be alone, to clear her head and put everything that had just happened into perspective. The look in his eyes, however, was making it very hard for her to leave him. She knew that comforting him was the nicer, and probably more sensible, thing to do, but she made up her mind and instead moved further away from him, towards the stairs.
"I think it's better if both of us get some rest," she murmured, before turning round and walking up the stairs, "Good night."

Later that night, Sarah was woken by a heartrending scream. Panic-stricken, she jumped out of bed and ran downstairs, thinking that whoever was after Bucky had figured out where he was. It sounded as though someone was being tortured.
When she finally reached the last step she saw there was no one else in the room but Bucky, who had fallen off the couch and lay writhing and screaming on the floor, as if he was having some sort of fit. She rushed over to him and with some effort she managed to push him onto his side. He stopped screaming and thrashing, but his breathing was still coming in sharp, shallow gasps.
Sarah smoothed some of his hair out of his face, and at her touch his eyes fluttered open. He looked wildly around him with a look of horror and Sarah moved back a little to give him room to sit up, watching him closely. Still breathing heavily, he passed a hand over his face. While he was calming down Sarah hastily went to fetch him a glass of water. His fingers still trembled a little when he took the glass from her. As she examined him, she thought she had an idea of what was going on, having seen a glimpse of it when he had attacked her earlier.
"Was it a nightmare?" she whispered, still looking at him intently.
He nodded, closing his eyes momentarily and letting out one shuddering breath to steady himself. Sarah bit her lip, feeling guilty for leaving him earlier, and even more guilty for not knowing how to comfort him. She hesitated, but then placed her hand on his right arm, giving him a sympathetic squeeze. He glanced down at her hand, then fixed his eyes on hers.
"I'm sorry for waking you," he muttered.
"Don't be…" she said bracingly. After releasing another deep sigh, Bucky scrambled to his feet and helped Sarah up too.
"I'm okay now," he said, "you can go back to bed if you want to." She could tell that he was lying, as he seemed on the verge of tears.
"Are you sure? I can stay, if you like."
He seemed to consider the offer, but ultimately shook his head, "It's okay. Just go back to sleep."